If I want to use some pans on still images and the images are old photos, what do you recommend as the best method for digitizing the photos for use?
I imagine scanning the photos at a high res would be best?
What if I'm out and about and the person is not willing to lend out the photos, have you ever just used your digital camera and taken a photo of a photo?
Thanks.

Yep,

I would think scanning is definitely the best choice but during some research I was doing several years back I took pictures of old photographs out in the field with a Sony DSC P100 (5 Megapix Cybershot still camera.) These were family pictures of peoples houses as they were 50 years ago etc. and there is no way these pictures were going to be allowed off the various premises!

It's a devil to get the lighting right (making sure you don't get a glossy reflection of the mid-day sun in the picture, macro enabled, photos often have a curl etc.) but it's better than nothing and the photos did get used in a DVD I did about that Suffolk village to great effect.

On a related point, last year I also tried to digitise some old 35mm slides by projecting them (with my now rarely used Lieca) onto a high quality 6ft screen and then taking pictures (with the same camera on a tripod in my darkened studio mounted as close to the projector as I could get to be as "square on" as possible.) Results were not spectacular/you get some cropping but certainly a lot better than my Epsom 1650 Scanner could produce with it's top lit/slide holder lid. Yes I do know you can buy slide photographing contraptions that fit on cameras for this...but where's the fun in that!

Yes, by all means scan the photo if you can. If you are using the motion controls in PremPro2 to move around with as I do, the maximum size scan is 4000 pixels across. Otherwise I scan color prints at 600, B&W at 800 and timy B&W contact prints at 1200. Anything above that is "empty" magnification.

If you must capture in the field, the any notebook hooked to one of the thin Canon LED scanners is the ticket. My Canon LIDE600F is 11x14x1.75 inches and is powered directly from the USB cable to your computer so there is no powerblock needed. Even the film scanner that comes with that bundle adds only a 3x16x1" part.